Punished for success

Poor "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher. All he wants is to get ahead, and can't understand why he must be punished for being successful. Barack Obama might just as well have said, "Joe, maybe your work is worth $60, but I'll give you only $50 and take $10 to distribute to whoever I think deserves the money more than you. As a patriotic American, you should welcome this." Almost 40 percent of the work force already pays no income taxes, but Obama plans to hand out cash anyhow as a "tax reduction." In my book, this is called welfare.

The media and the lefty bloggers have gone ballistic trying to destroy poor Joe's credibility. These are classic left-wing tactics -- if you cannot defend the message (redistribution of income), destroy the critic. Can a progressive reader enlighten me as to the logic of handing over as much as $10,000 to anybody making $40,000 or under? Especially when they already receive food stamps, unemployment compensation, heating oil credits, low-interest loans, Medicaid, free emergency care, child care, paid sick leave, free school lunches and private charity?